Gig review: Steve Earle and The Dukes & Duchesses, Glasgow Academy

OVER the years, whenever Steve Earle has wanted to strike up a country rock ruckus, he has used his band The Dukes.

In the interests of gender balance, though, his current outfit is called The Dukes & Duchesses, not least because his wife, singer and multi-instrumentalist Allison Moorer, has a key role to play in the ensemble.

The Dukes & Duchesses, including another couple, Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle and mandolin and Chris Masterson on guitar, and longtime Dukes bassist Kelley Looney, put on such a tight display that everyone felt key.

This was an informal but slick operation with no waiting around for the nod to launch into the next song, but equally there was room for different players to step up to the plate for their moment in the spotlight.

Earle is one of those authoritative performers who can pack real power on his own with just an acoustic guitar for company. The devastation of those quieter moments was lacking but the group set-up arguably worked better over the course of a three-hour set, pleasing those in the audience who had come to hear the strapping roots rock likes of Copperhead Road, facilitating some hearty bluegrass interludes and allowing Earle the flexibility to make a sweep of his catalogue from his early work My Old Friend The Blues to This City, his recent theme for the TV series Treme, via his thrice-recorded Devil’s Right Hand, a song which has only increased in stature through the years.

Rating: ***